


speak now (or forever hold your peace)

by afire



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, basically just lots of pining evie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 12:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12771303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afire/pseuds/afire
Summary: She steps into the room, closing the door as softly as she can, when the light flickers on and she jumps, hand flying to her mouth in order to muffle her scream.“Whoops, sorry.” Mal’s sitting up on her bed, blinking sleepily and looking the furthest from sorry she’s ever been. “Why are you back so late?”





	speak now (or forever hold your peace)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DangerCW](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerCW/gifts).



> Special thanks to [@sexshark](http://sexshark.tumblr.com) on Tumblr for sponsoring this fic!

It’s almost midnight when Evie finally makes it back to the room, fumbling with her keys in an attempt to be as quiet as possible. Everyone else is probably already asleep, and the last thing she wants is to get in trouble on a school night when she has to be up at half past seven the next morning in order to make it to class on time.

She steps into the room, closing the door as softly as she can, when the light flickers on and she jumps, hand flying to her mouth in order to muffle her scream.

“Whoops, sorry.” Mal’s sitting up on her bed, blinking sleepily and looking the furthest from sorry she’s ever been. “Why are you back so late?”

“Lost track of time at the library,” Evie says, motioning to the stack of books she’d just deposited onto their shared desk. “Why are you still awake?”

“I was-” Mal’s interrupted by a yawn, “I was waiting for you to get back.”

Evie softens, padding over to Mal’s bed and taking a seat, reaching over to run her thumbs over the curve of Mal’s cheekbones. “You didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to,” Mal says, then mutters something under her breath that Evie doesn’t quite catch.

“What was that?”

“I sleep better when you’re here.”

And, Evie thinks, maybe her mother was right. Not about finding a Prince, or living happily ever after in a big castle, but about other things, like being careful about who she gives her heart to, and how falling in love hurts more than it heals. Because Mal is looking at her with wide eyes and a happy smile and Evie aches with the weight of it all, the perpetual voice in the back of her head that’s telling her that falling in love with your best friend is _wrongwrongwrong_ , especially when said best friend is already dating someone else.

It hurts, and it hurts, and it will never stop hurting, but Evie just smiles back, standing up and tucking Mal securely into bed, kissing her gently on the forehead and promising that she’ll go to sleep soon, too. Mal mumbles a spell that makes the lights flicker off, and Evie breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

Secrets, after all, are best kept in the dark.

 

**/**

 

The next morning, Evie is just sliding into the bathroom to fix her hair, the last part of her morning ritual, when a knock sounds at the door. Mal, who’s been ready for the past fifteen minutes, goes to answer it.

“Oh, Ben, what’s up?”

“Good morning, Mal! Just came to walk you to class, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, just gotta wait for Evie.” Mal leans back from the door, yelling toward the bathroom. “You ready to go, E?”

“Ten minutes,” Evie calls back, “but you don’t have to wait!” They have different classes this morning, anyway.

“Don’t be silly, princess, I can’t go without you.” There’s the sound of shuffling, and then Mal’s talking again. “Hey, Evie says she’ll take ten minutes, so we’ll still make it to class in time.”

“Oh, I have a council meeting I have to attend, that’s why I dropped by early.” Ben sounds a little crestfallen, but he perks up again almost immediately. “It’s okay! I’ll just see you during lunch?”

“Yeah, sure, see you later.”

When Evie exits the bathroom, Mal’s sitting on the floor against the door, humming softly as she flicks through her spellbook. “You didn’t have to wait for me,” Evie says, echoing her own words from the previous night.

“I wanted to,” Mal shoots back, grinning cheekily. “Besides, who else is going to carry your books?”

Evie pouts as Mal takes her textbooks from her. “I don’t know, me?”

“Nonsense, a princess can’t carry her own books,” Mal says teasingly, shouldering the door open. “Come on, or you’re gonna be late.”

 

**/**

 

Evie gets to their usual lunch table first, and she’s just sitting down when Ben appears from around the corner.

“Oh, hey Evie! How were your morning classes?”

“They were fine,” Evie reaches into her bag and pulls out a neatly packaged sandwich. “How was your meeting?”

“It was alright, a little boring because everyone just wanted to talk about next year’s budget, but I guess it’s part of my kingly duties now,” Ben jokes, taking a bite out of his apple. “Lumiere keeps asking when Mal and I are getting married so he can start planning the wedding and we don’t accidentally spend too much on flowers, or something.”

Evie freezes, hands falling to her side from where she was stacking her notebooks into a neat pile. “Married? Wedding?”

Ben laughs, shaking his head. “It won’t be for a while, we’re still in school, and I haven’t even planned the proposal yet.” He grins winningly at her, showing off his pearly whites. “Though, between you and me, Mal’s definitely going to want you to be her Maid of Honor.”

And oh, that _hurts_.

Evie doesn’t even get the time to process, because Mal is sliding onto the bench next to her, Carlos and Jay taking the seats opposite them, and Ben has already moved onto the next topic of conversation, something to do with the new hedges in the front garden.

Her friends dissolve into laughter around her, and Evie has never felt more alone.

 

**/**

 

Falling in love happens slowly, not all at once, and, Evie thinks, there is always a thin, delicate moment wherein you’re aware that you’re running toward a cliff but don’t care, because the sky is stretching deep, and blue above you and the wind in your hair feels like freedom.

And then the ground disappears from beneath your feet and you’re not even sure if someone will be there to catch you at the bottom.

They’re in their senior year at Auradon High, just a few more months before it’s time to graduate, to leave and see the world. Evie has been on Auradon for four years and she has loved Mal for every single one of them, through the late-night missions to get cookies and the fits about homework and the one time Mal decided to test a flying spell by literally flinging herself out of a fifth story window.

(That experience had been harrowing, Evie doesn’t like thinking about it.)

Point being, Evie has loved Mal for as long as she can remember, ever since they were children, ever since a bright-eyed purple-haired monster of a girl tore through the back alley where Evie used to sit and scrapbook, yelling at her to _run, quick!_ and tugging her along while a pack of angry dogs gave chase.

Evie has loved Mal for _so_ long, and she’s never said anything about it. She was going to, right after the whole debacle with Maleficent and Fairy Godmother’s wand, but Ben got there first, and so Evie kept her mouth shut, because after everything they’d been through, after everything _Mal_ had been through, it’d just be selfish to give her one more thing to worry about.

The door swings open and Mal breezes in, a lot quieter than she usually is, setting her bag down neatly on the floor instead of throwing it halfway across the room like she always does. The late afternoon sun casts golden rays of light through their window, and, as Evie turns to look, Mal takes a step forward so she’s illuminated, green eyes glowing as she’s backlit by the sunshine.

She’s beautiful, and right now, Evie only knows one thing: she is a hundred percent, head-over-heels in love with her best friend, and there’s nothing she can do about it. They’re graduating in a couple months, and Mal’s going to get married to Ben, and Evie’s going to have to suffer her way through being the Maid of Honour because _how_ could she say no?

Mal cants her head to the side, confusion evident in her expression when the silence drags out a little too long. “What?”

And maybe Evie’s just about reached the end of her patience today, or something in her is finally giving because she figures this is her last chance to say something before everything changes, and if it doesn’t work out she can just leave and never come back, but she forces herself to meet Mal’s eyes, surprised when the words come more easily than she thought they would. “I love you.”

“Love you, too,” Mal says slowly, face scrunched up in puzzlement.

“No, I mean, I love you,” Evie repeats, and the truth tastes bitter on her tongue, because this is a secret she’s been keeping for more than half her life, almost all of it, in fact, and it’s like her body is physically rejecting the idea of revealing it, “I love you like I shouldn’t.”

Mal isn’t stupid. If anything, she’s quite intelligent, and she knows exactly what is being said here. Evie watches as she shuffles her feet, looking out the window, and at the far wall, and down toward the floor, anywhere but the bed that Evie is currently sitting neatly on.

“It’s okay,” Evie says softly, standing up and moving slowly toward the door, “you don’t have to say anything, I know you’re with Ben. I just wanted to- I don’t know, get it off my chest.” She smiles, a little sad but mostly accepting. “I’ll just leave you alone for a while.”

“No!” Mal’s hand shoots out, catching Evie by the elbow. “No, please don’t go.” She dithers about for a moment, before finally looking up and meeting Evie’s eyes. “On my way back here, Lumiere stopped me to ask about flowers, and I had no idea what he was talking about, and then he mentioned a wedding.”

“Mal, don’t-”

"Let me finish.”

Evie falls quiet, exhaling silently.

“He mentioned a wedding, _my_ wedding, which is apparently already being planned even though no one has proposed to me.”

“Ben’s just trying to find the right time-”

“That’s it, though!” Mal lets go of Evie to throw her hands up, eyes blazing. “Ben! It’s always Ben! Everyone just assumes we’re going to get married and live happily ever after, and there’s already a wedding being planned even though we’re both still in school and I just-” Mal cuts herself off, sighing as she runs her hands through her hair. “Whenever I think of my future,” she says softly, “the only person I see is you.”

Evie’s heart is thudding so fast she’s surprised Mal can’t hear her heartbeat. “What are you saying?”

“I’m _saying_ E, that maybe I don’t love Ben, maybe I never did! Maybe it was just everyone else who thought we were a good couple so I went along with it. Maybe-” Mal falters, biting her lip in hesitation. "Maybe I love you, too.”

“You can’t just say that,” Evie takes a single step forward, voice shaky. “You can’t just say that, Mal, because there are a lot of people who-”

“I don’t _care!_ ” Mal startles at the loudness of her own voice, blinking as she lowers it. “I don’t care, E, I don’t care about everyone else, I don’t care about what they think, I don’t care about who they want me to date. I care about _you_ , I love _you_.” She takes a deep breath and shuffles forward, closer to Evie. “I think I always have.”

And that’s the tipping point, really; Evie leans down, or Mal leans up, or some sort of amalgamation of both, but the important thing is that now they’re kissing. They’re kissing and Evie doesn’t think she’s ever felt anything quite like this, Mal’s hands tangling into her carefully sculpted hair, her own fingers curling tightly around the curve of Mal’s hips.

“I love you,” Mal breathes, once they break apart, her words evaporating into the space between their lips.

“Okay,” Evie says her voice nothing more than a whisper, “okay.”

 

**/**

 

(The next day, Mal kisses her good morning as they fight for space in front of the mirror and Evie thinks maybe telling secrets is better than keeping them, especially if the girl you love feels the same way.)

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr [@underwcrlds](http://taylorswift.co.vu) where I will be happy to talk to you about these dorks in love.
> 
> Until then, catch ya' on the flipside!


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